: The group of four youths lynched by a mob of villagers in Koraput district of Odisha on Wednesday, were identified as interstate marijuana smugglers from Madhya Pradesh.
Investigation led to the arrest of five other members of this gang on Friday.
Villagers from Jeypore sadar police station area who were on the lookout for members of a gang of child abductors on Wednesday night had mistaken the victims as members of the gang and lynched them on wee hours of April 9.
The police had also seized marijuana stock from a commander jeep that had been torched by the mob along with a bike and a Tata Safari.
According to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Yeshwant Jethwa, investigations have revealed that the four deceased marijuana smugglers from Madhya Pradesh were operating with the support of six locals of Koraput district.
Five associates of the lynched ganja smugglers have been arrested under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. One quintal of illegal marijuana was seized from their possession, Mr Jethwa added.
As the four wheelers used by these smugglers did not have the registration number of Odisha, the villagers’ suspicion increased. For the past few weeks rumours about a gang abducting small children for their body parts was doing the rounds in the village. But no complaint about missing children has been filed with the police yet, suggesting that this could possibly be a rumour.
The four deceased in their early thirties have been identified as residents of Anupur and Shadol districts of Madhya Pradesh. Their names are Lokesh Jaswal, Anand Shyam, Umesh Yadav of Anupur and Ramu of Shadol.
